Have you ever felt ill during a vacation? Your trips will be better when you feel better. Today, we’ll tell you the reasons why want to stay hydrated when flying and how you can boost your energy and health on your next vacation.
Reasons to Stay Hydrated When Flying
- maintain your energy level
- makes everything more pleasant
- Your Immune system depends on hydration
- helps prevent ear pain during takeoff and landing
- High altitude boosts alcohol’s potency
Ways to Hydrate for Vacation
- Start early:
- Start before your vacation (start now)
- Start your day hydrating
- pack a reusable water bottle
- pack a hydration aid
- Set Reminders/plan triggers
Other Ways to Maintain Energy While On Vacations
- Sleep
- Protein
- Probiotics
- Vitamin D
- Magnesium
Question: What is your favorite way to maintain nutrition when traveling?
Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!
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Ryan and Shayne are both Travel Advisers with Creating Magic Vacations, an authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Feel free to reach out to us for a free quote and to start making magical memories.
- Contact Ryan at DisneyTravelDad.Com.
- Contact Shayne at Shayne.fun.
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- Lockport, NY
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Episode 106 Transcripts
Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence,s so there are likely some highly amusing translations!
Ryan: Hello, and welcome to All Things Travel. Have you ever felt ill during vacation? Your trips will be better when you feel better. Today, we’ll tell you the reasons why you want to stay hydrated when you fly how you can boost your energy and health on your next vacation. You’re listening to all Things Travel, episode 1 0 6 original air date, April 27th, 2022.
well, Shayne, have you ever not felt great during a vacation?
Shayne: There was one time I flew somewhere and it was just a mix of flying. Of course the airplanes are pretty dry and it was a long flight. And by the time there, I started having a migraine. And and then I spent the next few days with cramps and all from not realizing the importance of hydrating when you fly.
Ryan: is something that I’ve really learned over the last couple of years is how important hydration is not necessarily during the flight, but how it’s going to make you feel over the first couple of days of your vacation.
can always tell it’s about the it’s about the second full day of a vacation. If I’ve taken care of myself on the flight, won’t get a migraine. If I have not taken, cause I don’t sleep well right away. I’m probably not eating and drinking the way that I probably should be. And boy that, that prep of hydration and that prep of taking care of myself can really impact I’m going to, if I’m going to tip that scale of a migraine or not, or just not feel good.
And I think it’s amazing, especially after you take one of these really long flight. You don’t understand how dehydrated you get. I remember the first time I flew to Ireland and that dinner, we were just like pitchers and pitchers, like seriously. Like I was just getting pictures of water for the table because everybody was so dehydrated
Shayne: And they don’t even give you ice over there. Do they?
Ryan: Now they don’t, but that’s okay.
That’s all right.
Shayne: That’s actually okay.
Ryan: Well, Hey today, we’re going to talk about not only why you should stay hydrated, what it does for you as a traveler, but also what are some tips we have to help you stay hydrated and better in control of your health while you’re traveling. But first Shayne, I want to know where in the world is.
All Things Travel,
Shayne: Lockport, New York,
Ryan: Lockport, New York, where is that?
Shayne: It’s an a, it looks like a very nice spot right there between lake Ontario and lake Aerie. So I guess you can probably take a guess at what great destination is pretty close by
Ryan: First of all, did you say Ontario?
Shayne: Ontario. That’s why we say it down here.
Ryan: Oh no. It’s Ontario. Yes. Okay.
so, in between, let’s see if it’s in between lake Ontario and Lake Erie, must be Niagara Falls.
Shayne: It is close to Niagara Falls slowly. I turn. Step by step. See, I guess you just had to watch the three Stooges. Nobody gets that anymore. These days.
Ryan: So have you been to the Niagara Falls, Shayne?
Shayne: I haven’t have. you, I guess you look pretty
close. You’ve probably been
Ryan: side and I’ve been to the New York side and I think the Canadian side is better.
Shayne: just going to say, was it you that told me that the
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah.
Shayne: Interesting
Ryan: So if we go to Lockport. New York, where are we hanging out with our listener?
Shayne: Gonzo.
Ryan: The name says it all.
You’ve got.
Shayne: says it out. Gonzo’s plus live music and you know what? They’ve got.
an open mic on Thursdays. I just might hop up there and play a couple of tunes.
Ryan: I like it. Well, thank you so much Lockport for listening. do us a favor, reach out to me or Shayne either via the Facebook group or email. I’ve got a little thank you gift for being featured on today’s show.
Shayne: We also have a. We’d like to give a shout out. Yes, it’s called so good. And that’s four owes. If you count the
owing. Good. that’s like six O’s total and yeah Five-star review from Mongoose Lover. This travel podcast covers so many different types of travel and gives a lot of.
great tips that’s even a seasoned traveler would need warning. You will want to travel more. If you listen to this podcast,
Ryan: That is a great review. Thank you so much. And I agree with you. I know I want to travel more because of this podcast.
Shayne: we were just talking about traveling more before We started recording. Weren’t
Ryan: We were absolutely. Well, thank you so much for the review. We really appreciate it. And we love to know that we are creating and content that people love to hear. And more importantly, it makes them want to travel more.
Shayne: It’s why we do it. I came up with a few reasons of why you want to hydrate for a flight.
Ryan: Okay.
Shayne: Think I have five.
Ryan: Okay.
Shayne: count to five, but I’m just going to say there’s about five ish. Somewhere between four and six,
number one, staying hydrated will help you maintain your energy level.
Ryan: It will. You won’t get those dead legs. You won’t kind of get that lethargic feeling when you get off of. Or at least more than you normally would.
Shayne: Yeah your body needs of the water in your system to help your blood system, transport the nutrients and things that make energy to the right places in your body. So you just want to give it all the help it can get. number two everything more pleasant.
Ryan: What is that?
Shayne: when you start getting low on energy, you’re going to get grumpy.
And
Ryan: Yes.
Shayne: are dehydrated enough or you start getting a headache and in your case, and in my case, even a migraine, you’re going to get grumpy and being grumpy, being in pain, not feeling Well, not pleasant. So.
Ryan: and also if you’re not feeling well, it could impact your sleep. If you’re not feeling well, maybe you can’t focus on the movie or the book or the game that you brought to the time you
Shayne: Sure. And it’ll make everything from the little inconveniences that you might find along the way to maybe people not behaving the way you think they should, when you feel a little bit. It’ll make it all seem more pleasant than it would if you weren’t feeling well.
Ryan: Gotcha.
Shayne: Number three, your immune system depends on hydration and you’re in a position where you’re out of your element.
You’re not with your normal routine. You might be missing a little sleep. You were going to be exposed to a few more things. It’s a good time to keep your immune system boosted and stress.
Ryan: Yeah. Anything you can do to keep yourself vigilant against germs. You know, that’s why we also like hand sanitizer and wipes and things like that to keep the germs off and you’re breathing in, you know, you’re breathing in air with everybody else and you’re traveling to different places. Keep that immune system as high as you possibly.
Shayne: And because of the climate is so dry in an airplane. And because of the altitude, we often get the, that sharp ear pain during takeoff and landing. And I don’t fully understand the scientific explanation for it, but I do know I have an analogy and it’s, if you’ve ever gone to a grocery store in a city like Denver or Salt Lake City, that’s at a higher altitude and you go to the chip aisle.
If you noticed the bags of chips are all like puffy because they were bagged at a place with higher air pressure and then shipped to this place with less oxygen. So that air pressure inside is greater than the air pressure inside. So it’s pushing out on the bag and they’ll appear like pillows
Ryan: very cool. Well, I’m going to be in Denver this summer. I’m going to test that.
Shayne: Yeah, just go have a look at that. And if you really want to test it, just take a small bag of chips or something with you, and you’ll see that when, you know, when you get there, it’s probably a little smashed, a little crumpled up. And then when you get there, it’ll be kind of, kind of puffy, which you know, side note, when you travel to a place with in a higher altitude, always open your lotions and things like that carefully, because there’s a good chance that pressure is building up inside and they’re gonna.
Getting a spray out on you. A little side note there. So if you think about that same thing happening with your head and with your eardrums, you’re going to have the pain from that pressure. So, and a good way to prevent that or to ease that in addition to having the gum or something and swallowing is to be well-hydrated
Ryan: Sounds good.
Shayne: and, you know, you. Might know a person or two who enjoys to have an adult beverage on a flight
Ryan: I have been around those folks. I’ve been known to, to see people drink on planes. Yes.
Shayne: and the high altitude will boost alcohol’s potency and a great way to make sure that you don’t have a little too much. On a plane is to stay well hydrated and drink some water along with whatever drink, adult beverage that you’re enjoying on the plane.
Ryan: Sounds good.
Shayne: So those are five reasons that you want to stay hydrated. And now we’re going to tell you how to stay hydrated
Ryan: Yup.
Shayne: the best way the absolute best way is to start. Early. And what I mean is start before your vacation. when I used to train for my running or my cycling, I would always start even more than usual, about a week and a half before the event.
Ryan: I don’t do it that far out, but definitely the couple of days before a flight, I will drink more than I use, which I actually drink a lot of water during the day. I really try stay hydrated partially, cause I like to drink coffee. And so I try to
Shayne: Yes,
Ryan: that But I really do try to ramp it up a couple of days before.
And I found that to be helpful.
Shayne: Sure.
And for a flight. Yeah maybe a day or two before, but when I participated in those running and
Ryan: Sure.
Shayne: like that, then I would start earlier and also starting early means to start first thing in the morning, start your day off with a big glass of water. that. Get most of the hydration you need right at the beginning of your day?
Ryan: And this is something I am not good at. I I will work on that coffee pot you know, the good part of the morning. And then I’ll start drinking water after.
Shayne: And this is a little bit of a tangent, but our brains have this cleaning system where they only do it overnight while you’re asleep. And all of the thinking using your brain that can, that uses energy. That’s still electrical impulses that’s consuming energy. And since matter, can’t be created or destroyed, you have this residue that’s left behind from.
Energy from your brain. And at night, while you sleep, your brain has this process. It’s the glymphatic system with a G that, that kind of flushes out all of that residue from your brain. And when you start your morning off of that big glass of water, you kind of help flush all of those toxins out of your system. Very similar to when you get a massage, the misuse will say drink a lot of water Right? now, because you know, by massaging out your muscles, I’ve just reached all of these toxins into your system. You want to flush them out, same thing every morning. You want to have all that water so you can flush all that stuff out of your day.
Ryan: Shayne, I am learning a lot today.
Shayne: All of these travel tips that go well beyond the hotels and the airplanes.
Ryan: I like it. So this next one for me pack every usable water bottle. However, I have a little bit of a tip with this. Yes. Obviously pack a reusable water bottle, but I know from personal experience, I lose water bottles constantly. While I’m traveling. in airports, I’ll leave them on planes. My tip is yes. Have a reusable water bottle. Don’t ever take anything you’re not willing to lose. so I will actually go and I will buy a larger disposable water bottle from like the convenience store. And I’ll use that as my water bottle on the trip, because I don’t mind if I lose it or I can just recycle it if I don’t have space for it the end of that.
But I’ve lost way too many, really nice water bottles while I’ve been traveling.
Shayne: we do recommend that you get a reusable water bottle versus reusing water from a plastic bottle because of the toxins and the plastics by using your own reusable water bottle. You’re not getting. Ingesting those toxins that you would get from reusing a regular plastic water bottle multiple times.
Ryan: So Shayne, you have talked before in the podcast about having hydration aids. I will often bring water flavoring, like a MEO or something like that, but you’re you take it one step further?
Shayne: Well, yeah, and those are fine too. For a couple of reasons. One is when you take your reusable water bottle to the Starbucks or the restaurant and ask them to fill it, they’re probably going to fill it with filtered water and. Might mean that they filtered out the electrolytes too, which are a part of hydration.
So those aides such as that will add back the electrolytes to make sure you get the essential hydration you need, maybe give you a little boost of hydration and it also makes the water taste a little better so that you’re
Ryan: Sure.
Shayne: to drink more of it.
Ryan: Yeah. And that’s why I have the flavoring so that I, so they want to drink it.
Shayne: another thing that I recommend is since you’re traveling, you’re out of your element, and even if you’re already diligent about hydration, when you get out of your normal routine you’re not gonna think about it. Cause I know. So I would recommend either having triggers that remind you to drink, whether it’s the pilot speaking over the intercom or anything like that, that you know is going to happen, set an alarm on your phone or on your watch that reminds you every 30 minutes or however often you think you need to a couple of drinks of your water.
Ryan: You’ve got a couple other ways here to maintain energy during travel and the first one’s really darn hard.
Shayne: Yes. it’s hard to do during travel. So I recommend doing your best to get this and as much as possible before you travel and that is sleep Sleeping in a different bed, maybe in a different time zone, it’s hard to sleep while you’re traveling. And that lack of sleep is going to zap your energy a little bit, kind of zap your immune system a little bit and anything you can do to give yourself a better chance for a good night’s sleep.
I recommend you do that.
Ryan: And I would add to this. And we’ve talked about this on the podcast several times, Shayne is not only try to protect your sleep, but also try really hard to if you’re switching time zones. To acclimate yourself as quickly as possible to the sleep of where you are.
Shayne: Yeah, because jet lag is pretty much when your circadian rhythm is out of sync with the local day and night cycles. what we’ve talked about before is as soon as you get there, you might miss some. For a few hours when you’re used to having it. But that first day of use that very first day, don’t take an app.
When you arrive at your destination, use that first day to sync up with the local time and that’ll make the entire rest of your trip a lot easier to sleep and more enjoyable. You’ll be more energetic when you’re in sync with that current times.
Ryan: This next one, I am a big proponent for, and that is protein. When I think of travel snacks, I always want to have some sort of protein, whether it’s nuts or a protein bar or something. Cause you know, you talked about the getting grouchy when your tire or when you’re dehydration. I’m a triple threat.
I get grouchy when I’m dehydrated. I get grouchy when I’m hungry, I get grouchy when I’m sleepy. So I know that protein is something I need to have.
Shayne: Yeah. If you have a sugary snack, that’s going to give you a little short-term boost, but then you’ll add the crash afterwards, having a good source of protein. One of them that you mentioned is a great way for it. Not as strong of an energetic boost, but a more leveled sustained energy source.
Ryan: So, so a little bag of trail mix or nuts, or something like that you know, is going to give you a little more slow burning energy than just the m&ms or something like.
Shayne: And then also recommend some sort of probiotic, whether it’s a powder or some other supplement that. With your water, either mixing it in your water, in a tablet form, or if you get a chance and there’s a yogurt available somewhere, go ahead and grab that yogurt. That’ll help make sure that your system stays functioning well.
Ryan: Gotcha.
Shayne: There was one time when our kid and a couple of our friends were visiting my wife’s family in Spain, and one of the kids was having some stomach issues and it was going on for a few days and she was taking some medication for it. So I asked to see as someone to send me the medication and it turned out that it was, she was.
Whatever the Spanish version of ibuprofen was, and she’s taking it first thing without having any food with it. So it was like, get the kids some yogurt and just make sure you have some food with that. And then, within a day or so, she was back to feeling well and can enjoy our trip.
Ryan: To wrap up the list here. You’ve got a couple minerals or vitamins that we should be taking.
Shayne: Yeah. And I added these here because that’ll help you with travel, but I’ll, but for me, those are the only two supplements I take. I don’t take a multivitamin or anything. These are the only two vitamins I take. They’re the ones that most people are most deficient in. help sustain the most human functions.
And those
Ryan: Gotcha.
Shayne: D and magnesium,
Ryan: I take vitamin D every day as well.
Shayne: and you probably have some magnesium and a multivitamin if you take it. But there’s a lot of bodily functions that depend on magnesium. And if that’s probably the after vitamin D my second highest recommendation for. A vitamin or supplement, but don’t take too much if you’re just starting out start with a small dosage, because too much magnesium will give your digestive system a boost in a way that you don’t want. So we ease yourself into it.
Yes.
Ryan: to the system when we’re traveling and you’re talking about these different things, do I take more of it because I’m traveling or it’s just, you need to be taking this regularly. So keep this in mind when you treat.
Shayne: A little bit of both take it regularly so that you’re always healthy enough to travel. Right? Cause a lot of this too, we should’ve mentioned this at the beginning about feeling well for a trip. You don’t want to get sick right before you.
Ryan: Right.
Shayne: And if you’re super excited about it, maybe you’re not going to be able to sleep.
You’re so excited you can’t sleep or you’re forgetting some of the things in your daily routine and making Sure.
that you have hydration and sleep and maintaining your immune system of probiotics and then vitamin D and magnesium that’ll keep you. Healthier feeling better in general. And then as a reminder on your trip to, to not forget those and probably especially the vitamin D is probably the one where it’s harder to take too much of it, first of all.
And because it’s a, water-soluble it flushes pretty quickly. It’s hard to take too much vitamin D, but if you’re going through a period where you’re not feeling well, really low energy, that’s a Great. way to probably get over that is to start increasing the amount of vitamin D that you’re taking, or just taking it in general.
If you’re not taking it.
Ryan: Great. Sounds good.
Well, Shayne, this has been really helpful today to think about some of those toiletry kit items or carry on kit items that we don’t always think about. And it’s been really helpful today whether it’s going out and getting one of those pill bottle separators
Shayne: Sure.
Ryan: your carry on or something.
It makes a lot of sense.
Shayne: Yeah. We don’t want you to just go to these places. We want you to maximize your experience while you’re there. And the best way to do that is feeling energetic and healthy.
Ryan: I love it. Well, as you know, we would love to help you plan your next amazing vacation, Shayne and I are both travel advisors with Creating Magic Vacations, you can reach out to us at R Y A N at CreatingMagicVacations.com, Shayne H A Y N E at CreatingMagicVacations.com
Shayne: most families are confused and overwhelmed when planning a vacation. We work with you to plan a trip that’s perfect for your interests and saves you time, money, and stress.